sound stops and begins clicking and popping

Sounds very similar to my experience.

I did an online upgrade from Jaunty to Karmic two days ago. No sound problems before but masses after.

When playing video (using Kaffeine) sound would be ok for 3 to 20 minutes then disappear into clicks, followed by silence. Using 'System Setting -> Multimedia' I told the system to use the CMI8738 module rather than pulseaudio & this appeared to cure the problem, for a day.

When playing games (Vendetta Online) the system degenerates into clicks after 5 - 20 seconds, shortly followed by complete silence. Possibly related, as this problem cropped up at the same time, when I try to exit the game the system locks up & I have to do a hard reset. Before the sound problem VO behaved perfectly.

Now, on system startup, KDE reports that the modules have been removed leaving only pulseadio available.

I tried to get more debug info but there a other problems (display settings on startup, dpkg currently unusable) confusing the issue.

My hardware is:-
AMD Phenom x4 CPU
nVidia GeForce 8200 chipset.
Added CMI8738 sound card as onboard sound was low quality. Have switched off onboard sound in the BIOS.

Cheers, Kimdino

i've removed pulseaudio, but other problem disturbs me. It is random sound glitches during playing sounds with alsa. I think, it is the same problem, that kicks out pulseaudio:

E: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_avail() returned a value that is exceptionally large: 4294953200 bytes (24347807 ms).

I mean, that during playing snd_pcm_avail returns bad value, and player restarts playing, but not as pulseaudio. It starts playing from the same place, where it stops, so there is a little glitch. Seems to be, that cmedia driver is broken and need to be fixed.

Sorry, there is some strange grammar mistakes in my last post. I don't know, how to edit it. Hope, you'll understand :)

I also am having problems with my CM8738 based card since 9.10 upgrade (9.04 worked perfectly). It starts out working fine, then sound will just stop. When I really need the sound to work, I'll try a cold boot. Sometimes the pulseaudio based sound config doesn't even show the card, even though lspci does.

Performing 'alsa force-reload' appears to correct the problem (even when the card refuses to show up in the Sound Preferences dialog, it will after running this).

I think there is something amiss with this driver for 9.10.

Further to my experience above I can now add a lot more information that may help. I have added a bug report as Bug #505892 as this allowed diagnostic data to be collected from my system. Just getting this explanation posted now to explain the cross-post. I will explain more later when the missus is not causing me hassle.

feroxy, sorry for the long delay in replying to your bug report. If you wish, we can continue to debug this issue for you, but you will have to re-install pulseaudio.

If you do reinstall pulseaudio, and continue to have problems, please run the command "apport-collect -p alsa-base 476652" to help us gather additional information.

I can do this if it helps

fenixk19, if you have an identical sound card, then it would be useful to post it in this bug report. Otherwise, I would suggest filing a new bug report.

Yes, i have identical sound card.

Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: fenixk19 4668 F.... xfce4-volumed
                      fenixk19 15089 F.... amarok
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: fenixk19 15089 F...m amarok
 /dev/snd/timer: fenixk19 15089 f.... amarok
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'CMI8738'/'C-Media CMI8738 (model 33) at 0x9800, irq 18'
   Mixer name : 'CMedia PCI'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 41
   Simple ctrls : 24
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANGUAGE=ru_RU.UTF-8
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/usr/bin/fish
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-18.55-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-18-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip disk floppy gdm haldaemon lpadmin plugdev sambashare scanner vboxusers video

Architecture: amd64
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'CMI8738'/'C-Media CMI8738 (model 33) at 0x9800, irq 18'
   Mixer name : 'CMedia PCI'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 41
   Simple ctrls : 24
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANGUAGE=ru_RU.UTF-8
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/usr/bin/fish
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-18.55-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-18-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip disk floppy gdm haldaemon lpadmin plugdev sambashare scanner vboxusers video

Sorry, first time my apport-collect failed. I don't know how to delete duplicate posts.

Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: craig 4098 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'CMI8738'/'C-Media CMI8738 (model 37) at 0xa400, irq 10'
   Mixer name : 'CMedia PCI'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 43
   Simple ctrls : 23
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-17.54-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-17-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lp lpadmin mythtv plugdev pulse sambashare

Just an addendum: Since I filed this report, I have been running the command "pulseaudio -k" on startup with "autospawn=no" in my ~/.pulse/client.conf and this mostly makes things work provided I am using smplayer or vlc for playback (where I can set audio to alsa). Unfortunately this does leave me without a volume control applet and the standard apps wont play audio (totem, banshee, nautilus preview etc). I have found that adobe flash will sometimes kill audio for whatever reason, even with no pulseaudio loaded, but a "alsa force-reload" will bring it back in that case.

And i've tested this out: If i start pulseaudio with a "pulseaudio -D", the problems are back, kill it again and it all works fine.

This affects me as well. I've reported it with the Alsa project too:

https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/view.php?id=4911

Hi feroxy,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 476652

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

It is still an issue. I cannot use anything that plays sound with pulseaudio enabled. I have tried installing the alsa backport modules (currently linux-backports-modules-alsa-2.6.31-20-generic) to no significant improvement.

 cat /proc/asound/version
 Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.22.1.
 Compiled on Feb 8 2010 for kernel 2.6.31-20-generic (SMP).

I will try running the 10.04 live CD (I cannot commit to installing it at this moment though). I hope this should show if the problem is solved or not without installing?

Would you like me to try the mainline kernel in my current 9.10 install, or am I only to do that if installing 10.04rc? Same for the debug information, do you want that from my current 9.10 install or only from 10.04?
Sorry, I'm not entirely clear on your instructions.

feroxy, let's first just see how things sound on the Lucid LiveCD. The results of that should give guidance on where to proceed from there.

Doesn't seem to be any improvement with the lucid liveCD.

Totem is unusable with pulseaudio enabled; after a few minutes, it just goes silent then starts speeding though the video. Had some crashy things happen too while testing all this out. gnome-volume-control died, sound died completely until I did a "alsa force-reload" and restarted pulseaudio. Generally, not very good. Again, killing pulseaudio seems to make sound "work" as it does on my 9.10 install (as far as I could tell).

Got several instances of the following in the syslog, with varying values:

Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_delay() returned a value that is exceptionally large: -715420 bytes (-4055 ms).
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_cmipci'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump():
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: Hardware PCM card 0 'C-Media CMI8738' device 0 subdevice 0
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: stream : CAPTURE
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1)
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 16384
Apr 26 01:57:54 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 8192
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 185759
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 8192
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 1073741824
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 1073741824
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: appl_ptr : 13417614
Apr 26 01:57:55 ubuntu pulseaudio[10056]: alsa-util.c: hw_ptr : 13238759

I can confirm to have the same exact problem as described by feroxy.
Using lucid 64bits fully updated here on a hp laptop.

It just takes a few seconds on a youtube video to trigger the problem.
With a media player it usually last longer but it crash anyway.

i though my sound card might be dieing but on Vista on the same machine there's no problem.

This is what i find in my logs:

Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_delay() returned a value that is exceptionally large: -6377097072356232136 bytes (-326791807483 ms).
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_hda_intel'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump():
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: Soft volume PCM
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: Control: PCM Playback Volume
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: min_dB: -51
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: max_dB: 0
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: resolution: 256
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: stream : PLAYBACK
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1)
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 88192
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 44096
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 999909
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 87752
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 6205960286516543488
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 6205960286516543488
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: Slave: Hardware PCM card 0 'HDA Intel' device 0 subdevice 0
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: stream : PLAYBACK
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD
Apr 26 20:22:40 hp pulseaudio[1767]: alsa-util.c: ...

I want to add that i didn't get the problem until yesterday.

I was using lucid since the beta 1 with no problem whatsoever.

It started using Portal through wine, and it became increasinly more frequent, that's why i though he might have been a hardware issue resulting from the stress i was placing on the hardware playing,

But using Vista no problem so i'm kinda lost.

Hi,

i think i solved my problem, kinda...

basically a couple of days a go i moved my wireless mouse usb dongle from one usb port to an other. The mouse continued working great so i didn't think much about it.
Now brought the dongle back were it was and i have no more
audio problems.

The usb port that was giving audio problems is a special one. It supports both usb and eSata.

I think anyway that something is fishy. I should be able to use it as a usb port without crashing the audio. I mean Vista was able to do it so it must be possible somehow. Fortunately for me the workaround was trivial. I don't really like Vista :)

Arroccali, that is a very interesting observation. Frankly, I have never heard of such a port before, but I can imagine how that might effect things with regards to timings. Could you please upload the dmesg output that occurs when you attach the usb dongle to the special port? It might also be interesting to see if there are any dmesg output while the clicking and popping are occuring.

ok, as per #42 I tried a couple of mainline kernels on my 9.10 install, following the guide at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds

The first one I tested was the mainline build of what I currently run:
Mainline kernel: 2.6.31.12
Results: no change that I could tell, same problems present.

Next I tried the most current kernel (daiy build) as found at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/daily/current/
Specifically: linux-image-2.6.34-999-generic_2.6.34-999.201005011008_i386
Results: Well, sound seems to be fixed from what I could tell. I was able to play an entire mp3 podcast in totem, something I cannot do on my normal kernel. Same goes for video, in both totem and smplayer. Spotify was fine too. I would like to have given it a few days of testing to be absolutely certain, but unfortunately this kernel doesn't seem to work with my nvidia drivers and I'm stuck in low res mode while booted to it (any hints towards fixing this would be nice).

So it looks like whatever was changed in 2.6.34 has fixed the issues with this sound chip, at least in the build that I used.

Audio clicking/skipping/stuttering issue exists in the latest Lucid release...

$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.22.1.
Compiled on Apr 29 2010 for kernel 2.6.32-22-generic (SMP).

aslam, could you possibly be having the same problem as Arrocalli? Do you have any type of non-typical ports (like a USB/eSATA combo port)?

@WeatherGod: AFAIK, I don't have "non-typical" ports. gnome-device-manager shows the following types of USB ports:
82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI
82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI

Incidentally, this started happening (in my case) only after upgrading to Lucid, and others also seem to have this problem -- see Bug #551949 and the following thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1471262

Upon reading this bug report more closely, it appears that what I'm seeing may be different from this bug description. If that's the case, my apologies. However, I do run into the "exceptionally large value issue" problem every now and then -- see attached syslog excerpt.

The following workaround seems to have done the trick for me:

System: Ubuntu 10.04 amd64

File: /etc/pulse/default.pa
    Add " tsched=0" to the following line:
      load-module module-detect

See post #39 in this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1471262

I can say that I have exactly the same problem described by feroxy, using C-Media 8738. I just did a clean install yesterday of 10.04, I was using 8.04 previously (without problem), but I never upgraded before because this problem started with pulseaudio deployment and I was hoping it would get fixed. I attached my log output sound_card_1.txt from a recent failure, but it is always the same, a few seconds to minutes of playing followed by silence and the audio or video player starts to run away at high speed with no sound coming forth.

AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: tdt 1944 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'CMI8738'/'C-Media CMI8738 (model 37) at 0x2400, irq 23'
   Mixer name : 'CMedia PCI'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 43
   Simple ctrls : 23
CurrentDmesg:

DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100427.1)
Package: alsa-base 1.0.22.1+dfsg-0ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.33-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Tags: lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic i686
UserGroups:

dmi.bios.date: 10/29/2002
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: 6.00
dmi.board.name: NBGV - Northwood/Brookdale-G Validation Board
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: None
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: No Enclosure
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvr6.00:bd10/29/2002:svnHPPavilion05:pnP9849A-ABA503n:pvr2001211RE101GLEND:rvnIntelCorporation:rnNBGV-Northwood/Brookdale-GValidationBoard:rvrNone:cvnNoEnclosure:ct1:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: P9849A-ABA 503n
dmi.product.version: 2001211RE101GLEND
dmi.sys.vendor: HP Pavilion 05

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Re the workaround in my comment above (#55):

The problem returned a day or two after I reported that the workaround had done the trick.

i can confirm this too on lucid. when using the audio chipset (realtek audio chipset in gigabyte 780g motherboard) the rythmbox keeps stuttering the mp3 i played. but when using an usb speaker, the sound went smooth.

I have a ALC268 based sound card, and I also face the same audio stutter problem in various programmes such as VLC and Stepmania.

Removing pulse audio, and having programmes connect to ALSA instead fixed the issue.

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.